How to solve the problem of medical deserts in Europe?

Abstract

Background: Medical deserts are increasingly considered a problematic issue for many countries, which try to employ a multitude of policies, actions, and initiatives to achieve a better distribution of the health workforce (HWF).
 Aims and Objectives: Participants will be able to discuss different reasons for shortages of HWF in medical deserts and approaches to mitigate them, in order to further, improve a taxonomy on approaches to mitigate medical deserts.
 Methods/Workshop format: During the workshop, the first version of a taxonomy for medical deserts will be presented. With the taxonomy, it should be possible to find an approach to mitigate a medical desert given its characteristics. The taxonomy is still under development. After the presentation, a discussion will be held on the taxonomy. Questions like the following will be discussed: Is the taxonomy useful for different countries? Do we miss any characteristics? What are possible (other) approaches to mitigate medical deserts? And what are the experiences with possible approaches in different countries? 
 Target audience: Healthcare professionals and citizens interested in how to solve the problem of medical deserts in Europe.
 Format:
 5-minutes – Welcome & introduction round (RB).
 5 minutes – Goals & guidelines for the workshop (LF, AIG).
 20 minutes - Presentation of first version of the taxonomy for medical deserts (RB, SD).
 20 minutes – Discussion on the first version of the taxonomy for medical deserts (all)
 20 minutes – Sharing good practices to mitigate medical deserts in Europe (all).
 5 minutes – Closing (RB). 
 Key learnings / Take away: The workshop will give insight into medical deserts in different countries and possible approaches to mitigate and eliminate them.
 The ROUTE-HWF project is co-funded by the Health Programme of the European Union. For more information on the project, please visit our website www.route-hwf.eu.